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Introducing PS21

The Project for the Study of the 21st Century is a new global think tank for a new global era. A unique collection of people, broad in background, and eclectic in outlook. Focused on finding new ways of telling stories and exploring issues. Non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological.

Content people read, discussions they remember.

Incorporated in August 2014 and launching formally in January 2015, PS21 has already proved much of its concept. It has recruited several dozen global fellows from government, private sector, activist, academic and other backgrounds. It has published a bestselling Kindle Single e-book as well as a hardcopy version and worked with partners on successful events in Washington DC.

In the coming year, it will acquire its first full-timestaff member — Reuters global defence correspondent Peter Apps, kindly lent on paid sabbatical as executive director — and extend its operations to London and beyond.

The overall concept is relatively simple: build a worldwide network of fellows and produce truly original events and content for a popular as well as professional/specialist audience. Built heavily around a team of dedicated and often very young volunteers, it will have very low overheads but serious ambitions.

Its scope is deliberately broad — the major issues of the 21st-century, from changing power dynamics to the impact of technology and globalisation. When it tackles a subject, it will do so with an eye to those big questions. But it is also an exercise in popular communication, looking at finding ways of addressing the larger picture often through hard-hitting personal accounts.

In 2015, PS21 will aim to establish itself as a significant global presence. It will hold two major conferences in London and Washington DC with multiple smaller events in both locations and elsewhere. It will publish additional electronic and print books as well as articles with major outlets. It will conduct a high tempo media campaign positioning its fellows as authoritative commentators.

Sometimes iconoclastic, often irreverent, ever so slightly feral.

Fellowships will be unpaid but will offer members excellent promotional and networking opportunities as well as being prestigious in their own right. The Project will offer social events as well as open panel and closed off the record discussions. There will also be the chance to be involved in e-mail and online discussion groups as well as a range of projects.

Funding/support

Initial seed funding of 10,000 pounds will be provided by the Peter Michael Apps Personal Injury Trust. We are also very grateful for support in kind offered by several other organizations. Pro bono legal support provided by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, coordinated by the TrustLaw Programme at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.